A Gehn Piece
by Aitrus5
Summary: What once was, and what can never be again, a story of love and loss.


87.7.25  
  
He linked, the tingling sensations moving up his arm like ants, enveloping him like a swarm, and he felt himself moving through the void.  
~Please~, he thought. ~I need this to be.~  
He always closed his eyes when he felt the link about to complete.  
The air around him swirled into existence, brought to life with the stroke  
of his pen, on paper he had created. He breathed in the cool air, and opened his eyes.   
Gehn stood in a great cavern, one not unlike his home of long, long ago.  
~Was I ever that young?~ It soared upward, so high he could not even see  
the ceiling. The air smelled fresh, yet cold. To be expected, when one was underground. He did not even need his D'ni goggles to darken the light.  
He carried only a knapsack of food, his journal, and of course, a Linking book. He had to link back to the Fifth Age, much as he hated to do so. Oh, how he hated!  
But he was here for a different reason. He was not here for his ultimate mission, to make D'ni begin once again, to right what was wronged.  
He looked past several pillars, gigantic trees of rock that connected from floor to ceiling and started off, briskly walking, his eyes darting everywhere, searching.  
The cavern stretched off farther than he could see, it would take him  
several hours to find what he was looking for, if it existed at all.  
~I need this to be...~  
For hours he walked, trudging up mountains of rock, descending into gullys of water the color of limestone, the only sounds his boots upon the stone and the steady drip, drip, drip of water.   
For longer than that, he had written feverishly, cooped up in his office on Age 233, barely stopping to eat or drink, collapsing onto his bed only when exhaustion overtook him. He had to know...  
He had poured his heart out onto the pages. The need for it to exist, the knowledge of the Art, the scratchings of his pen transcribed his deepest desires, his most intimate thoughts and memories. Made them real.   
He came upon the village so suddenly he nearly fell over when he stopped. From far away, he observed it with a keen eye. A smile touched his lips.   
He had created life again. The feeling  
was a good one. The D'ni civilization would be reborn yet.  
It was a small village, to be sure. But the smell of cooking fires reaching his nostrils and the sight of people walking around brought thoughts of pride in his work. He always thought it a pity he could not show his work off to others.   
But for the moment, he paused, admiring the stone huts, admitedly crude, but coming right out of the rock as if they were carved. Giant lizards chewed on reins as they carried carts from place to place. The people were simple looking, dressed in flowing clothing the color of slate.  
But they were not why he had come here. Not why he had written this Age, this D'ni throwback to simpler times.   
He walked around the village from a distance, climbing hills of stone so he could get a better view. He strapped on his goggles, telescoping the world around him.   
He stared unblinking for an entire hour, walking around , not caring for the rumble in his belly, the aching tiredness setting in his muscles.  
~I need this to be...~  
Suddenly, he saw her, animatedly talking to a companion, coming out of the village. Perhaps going for a walk. He gasped audibly.  
In an instant his feet were running, carrying him over the stones, towards her.   
"Keta!"  
She turned towards him, mouth opened wide in shock. Her friend, screamed, and ran away, pulling at her sleeve. She started to run with her, and he reached them and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the shrieking woman. "Keta!"  
The woman blinked several times in obvious confusion and said "Keh-ta?"   
Her friend ran off screaming back into the village. He gave her not a moment's glance. "Keta, it's me! Gehn!" He stared at her face, searching for a spark of recognition, of lost memories come to life, a smile to light her face.   
Instead he saw only confusion and fear. She trembled visibly, slight tears appearing at her eyes.   
Despair crumbled his frame, and he sank down onto his knees. It hadn't worked. Why did he think it would have?   
He held onto her arm desperately. It was the same arm he'd carressed many times in his sleep. He could smell her scent, her hair. She even had the same laugh lines around her eyes...  
She stammered at him in an unknown language, a questioning look. She kneeled down, no longer quite as frightened, just confused. Probably wondering who this lunatic man was and she could help. She was like that, his Keta. Always giving. Always caring.   
With a choked sob, he flung her arm away and stumbled blindly away from the village.   
"Cho-cheka!"  
He ignored her, heading for a deep crack he had noted earlier. He heard her stumbling, following him, crying out the same word every second.   
He reached the chasm, and took out his Linking book, holding it poised above the void. The irony of this moment was not lost on him.   
He turned, blinking back tears, the god not willing to cry in front of his children.  
"Go away!" he said harshly. "You...you are not what I wanted. You are a fake. A misplaced sylable! You..."   
She walked towards him, hands held up, trying to indicate she was not dangerous. Of course she was not. She was gentle and kind, and the only good thing he had ever had in his life since the Fall...  
"Leave me!" he bellowed angrily, swiping his hand at her. She didn't move. Same inquisitivness...   
"K'nate! Dsoquate ta ptinsa...?" she said softly. She had the look on her face, the look she gave him when he was angry, frustrated, the look that put a smile on his face and eased his troubled mind.   
"I...I cannot stay. This cannot be." he said. "I am sorry. More so than you will ever know."   
On impulse, he reached out and brushed his hand across her cheek. He closed his eyes, swallowing every feeling that came from the touch. He buried them deep inside his being.   
He opened his eyes.  
"Goodbye Keta...my love."  
And he stepped backwards off the chasm, placing his palm on the Linking book, the tingling sensation mixing with immeasurable feelings of loss and love. He looked longingly up at her as she disappeared from his eyes, from his life once more.   
  
K'etah stared opened mouthed at the black hole from where the strange man had actually vanished into thin air.   
What in the world had happened? The strange man had appeared from nowhere seemingly, wearing strange clothes and babbling at her in a tongue she had never heard. Had he been saying her name? And why...why did she feel like she knew him?   
Oh, she had never seen him before...but the familliar feeling remained. And the look of sorrow in his eyes...  
"K'etah!"   
She turned. Her friend Elana hurried up towards her, two of the soldier class right behind her, stone g'aleth poles clenched. "Where is that man? Are you all right? Did he hurt you?"  
"Are you all right?" one of the men asked.  
"Yes...yes, I'm fine." K'etah said, staring back down into the void.  
"Where did this man go?" asked one of the men. There are two sets of tracks, but they both end here..." the man blinked and looked down into the chasm. "Did he...?"   
K'etah opened her mouth and slowly closed it again. "Never mind what happened." she said curtly, striding past the astonished trio. "I'm going home."  
  
An exhausted Gehn linked back into his office. He barely remembered  
to turn off the power to his linking books before practically falling down  
the ladder to his sleeping quarters. He washed his face in the sink and sat on his bed. He stared at his symbol, the pen nibs, the D'ni numeral of Five.  
His mission was all he had. He had to get his people back. His civilization, his way of life. He had to get out of Age Five. Tomorrow he would visit Catherine again. She would tell him what Atrus's plans were.  
He picked up his journal and re-read the entry from a month ago, then flung it into the corner.  
  
87.6.20 It's late and I cannot sleep. I've lost so much in my life. My people, my father, my son, and you my wife ~ Keta, you were the only true kindness I have ever known. Watching you flicker there in the Imager... I sometimes wonder if you were real. If I could restore your life with my pen, I would do so in an instant, and leave the rest of the world to their own wretched fate.  
  
He set the Imager to repeat, then watched his wife's face flicker before him. Silently, he watched the face as he had watched it so many  
times before, remembering.  
He fell asleep listening to her words, and dreaming of what he had left behind.  
  
K'etah woke up that night shivering, sweat staining her bedsheets, crying softly, clenching her blanket with her fingers. A sense of loss  
swept through her like a cold wind, leaving her curled up, sobbing quietly  
until dawn.   
  
  
  
The End  
  
Comments? T12345r@aol.com  
  



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